Flight crew of an air carrier aircraft has difficulty entering a 'published' hold at BRAND intersection when the lead-time from the clearance is insufficient to allow access to the necessary chart.

Narrative

While enroute at 8000FT; PHL Departure without warning quickly issued holding instructions to us; 'hold at BRAND intersection as published' (on V123). I first looked at the fix. It was 1 minute away. We had all the LGA charts out; but we were not on an arrival and did not have our low altitude charts out to find the 'as published' hold. So I asked ATC to read us the as published hold. The Controller gave a most roundabout holding instructions. In hindsight; the Controller was telling us how to identify BRAND intersection; which wasn't the problem. In short; the Controller told us left hand turns. We clearly heard it; wrote it down; and read it back. As we were turning left in the holding pattern; the Controller queried us about the direction of turn. The Controller said; left turns might have been given; but meant to give right turns. We got vectored back into the holding pattern for right hand turns. When we found time during this; I quickly looked through all the arrivals and the en-route chart to find the published hold at BRAND. I could not find it. Not until we were on the ground did I find BRAND on the low altitude en-route chart #47 with the hold. I incorrectly assumed the 'blowup' section of NY area would be the same. But it only showed BRAND without the hold. We were unprepared for a literally last minute as published hold. When we asked for help; ATC gave us incorrect instructions. Also; the en-route blow-up unexpectedly did not publish the hold. We asked ATC to read us the holding instructions. Don't be afraid to ask ATC for vectors until the hold instructions are understood correctly.